The Big Year movie

Stefka

Stefka

Well-Known Member
Hie guys, has anyone seen this movie? The Big Year (2011) - IMDb

I am asking because I´ve absolutely loved it and yet it´s only got 6/10 on IMDB.

I understand that "real" birdwatchers might find some of the scenes inaccurate and too "main-stream", but I think that it was a great way to introduce interest in nature and birdwatching to general public.

There were some really nice scenes, especially the one with eagle courtship - The Big Year Blu-ray Exclusive: Courtship of the Bald Eagle - MovieWeb.com

What are your thoughts? Did you like the movie?
 
I loved that movie, thought it portrayed birdwatchers fairly realisticly, though has a little too much other stuff for myself. Only mistake is calling an indigo bunting a blue grosbeak, but other than that, very accurate and excellent overall.
 
To be fair, the character calls out "blue grosbeak" after we are shown an image of an indigo bunting, though it is implied that doesn't have to be the same bird they are seeing. The pink footed goose in the hotspring was hard to swallow though.

I absolutely loved this movie, and actually feel birding was portrayed pretty accurately in it. I also recommend reading the book on which it was based. Definitely a good read.
 
I didn't think much of the movie to be honest. I didn't think it was a bad movie, just not all that great. I did really like the book. The movie was always going to be a bit of a tough sell. In fact if you read reviews of it (by regular critics not birders) very often they are talking negatively about the subject matter rather than the movie itself (e.g. "what's more boring than going birdwatching? -- Watching other people going birdwatching"). So you've got a relatively big budget movie with big name actors in what really should have been a low-budget movie of relatively little interest (to your average movie-goers). It scored low with critics and took little at the box office. It hasn't been released in NZ yet, and the date keeps moving back, and I rather suspect it won't get released on the big screen here at all given its track record in overseas theatres.

I thought it was patchy, and some of the best scenes weren't used (e.g. the flamingo hunt in the Everglades was almost pointless the way it was in the movie -- as it was written in the book it would have been a hilarious scene that Jack Black could have really pulled off well). Something I did have issues with was the frequent use of CGI birds! They're spending a lot of money making this movie -- just go film some real birds!! Another thing was the curious way the movie on the one hand assumed the audience knew all about North American birding (neither the great spotted woodpecker nor the pink-footed goose were really explained in terms of why they were considered so amazing) and yet it was aiming itself at a general market.

Jack Black's use of binoculars was quite amusing too ;)

On the whole, this wasn't really a movie about birding, it was about relationships. I guess it did that well, but I think overall it suffered by trying to be two different movies at once.
 
I think there are laws about using native birds in movies and TV that preclude their use.
 
laws about filming wild birds? Or laws about using tame native birds? Either way that sounds like nonsense.
 
hmm, I did some judicious googling and found another forum discussing the legality of filming wild birds in the USA, the original opinion of which derived from a commentary on the DVD of tv show "Six Feet Under" where they were saying it was illegal to film wild crows so they used an African pied crow instead. The consensus seemed to be that this conclusion was reached from the wording of the MBTA (Migratory Bird Treaty Act) in which it is illegal to possess, harm, etc native birds. Whether it is illegal to film wild birds in the wild doing wild things seems highly unlikely to me.

I can't see how it would be illegal to film tame American birds either (e.g. great horned owls) -- I've seen loads of movies where there are native American birds being used, and likewise for mammals (e.g. pumas and bears).

In any case, The Big Year did have footage of real wild birds, as well as CGI ones and I think animatronic ones.

Americans and their laws eh?
 
I watched this movie a couple days ago, and I enjoyed it. I agree with all the flaws in the movie that were already mentioned by Chlidonias et al, and I do agree that the movie was about relationships rather than birds. Indeed, with 3 comic megastars (Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin), I felt the movie could have been funnier.

I guess that I enjoyed it even more, because it was nice to sit with my wife knowing that she loves birdwatching, and knowing that it wasn't one of those movies that she sat through to patronise me (like Prometheus).
 
I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would, although I think it is fairly lightweight. Jack Black wasn't as annoying as he can be. I found Steve Martin's odd plastic-mask botoxed face rather distracting, and I thought the John Cleese voiceover was largely unnecessary.

The use of CGI seemed to be when the director wanted to create a specific scene, eg a hummingbird flying around a man's head, or a woodpecker at the top of a tree with the two men at the bottom looking up at it, which would be hard/impossible to do with live birds. I don't like the CGI though as it looks so fake.

If the Big Year was supposed to be a US thing, how come they included British Columbia in it (the Xantus' hummingbird near the beginning)? Also why call it a world record when it is just concerning one country (like the World Series)?

Can anyone who has witnessed it tell me if there really are clouds of birds of so many species when there is a storm over the Gulf of Mexico during the migration season, as shown in the film?
 
Regarding the Xantus hummingbird, the ABA considers the boundaries for a Big Year to be North America north of Mexico and a specified distance off the coasts thereof. There actually was a Xantus hummingbird sighting in Victoria, BC in 1998, the year of the real record breaking big year.

Regarding the world record thing, I can't explain it other than it's an American thing. (it drives my Canadian wife nuts)
 
Maybe it's a world record for the most north American birds observed by a single man in a year?
 
they modified the Big Year concept in the movie for non-birders, so that it becomes a competition that every American birder enters (I can't remember if that was stated or only implied), and whoever wins is the "best birder in the world". I'm guessing the makers thought the movie-goers wouldn't be able to grasp the concept that there are other places in the world with birds or birders (remember the scene where the two genteel English birders observed witheringly "only Americans could turn birding into a sport"?).
 
Is there a similar thing in Australia? Like a big year for Aussie birds? My wife and I were inspired, and we would really want to try to see as many birds as possible over a year or two. :D
 
nanoboy, I should have mentioned there is a current Australian "Big Year" being undertaken by John Weigel (of the Australian Reptile Park). I think he's on 670-odd at the moment.

See here for his progress: Birding for Devils
 
Chlidonias said:
nanoboy, I should have mentioned there is a current Australian "Big Year" being undertaken by John Weigel (of the Australian Reptile Park). I think he's on 670-odd at the moment.

See here for his progress: Birding for Devils
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! With a few months left in the year, he just might break the previous record.

Are vagrant birds and introduced species counted in a 'Big Year'?
 
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